Optical lenses designed for correcting vision deficiencies of persons have been developed and utilized for a long period of time. As is the case with any optical lens, it is necessary to generate surfaces, both front and rear, of predetermined configuration to effect a desired correction of a particular patient's vision deficiency. It is a common practice to utilize an apparatus which is of a machine lathe type structure wherein the lens blank is mounted on a spindle which is revolved while a cutting tool is applied to the surface for generating of a specific configuration. An example of such a prior art lathe is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,977,279 issued Aug. 31, 1976 to Derrell C. Hooker. The lathe disclosed in that patent, in general, comprises a spindle for supporting the lens blank and rotation thereof during surface forming operations and a cutting tool carried on a turret device that is rotatable about an axis transverse to the axis of rotation of the lens supporting spindle. Control mechanism is provided to effect relative displacement of the cutting tool in a predetermined manner during the surface generating operation. This control mechanism includes a concave cam surface against which a spring-biased tool support and cam follower cooperate in effecting this control over the surface to be generated. The surfaces that can be generated by the Hooker lathe may be of not only an aspherical configuration, but may also be spherical. The particular configuration is dependent upon the settings of the various components of the apparatus and particularly as to the control elements.